交通困擾

又遲到了？還錯過了重要客戶會議？威爾可真夠慘的。這一切都是堵車惹的禍。

Stephanie: Will! Where have you been? You know we had the meeting with the clients this morning.

Will: Oh， no! Am I too late?

Stephanie: Yes， they just left. ①Luckily I covered for you. But I wouldn’t be surprised if ②Mr. Black wants a word with you. Where were you?

Will: ③Traffic was a killer! There was a car accident on North Street so it was backed-up all the way to South Street.

Stephanie: Was it serious? Was anyone hurt?

Will: ④No， just a little fender-bender. But my bus couldn’t move.

Stephanie: I know what you mean. It happened to me on the weekend. ⑤When North Street is down， it’s absolute chaos.

Will: Yeah， and then we got to where the accident was. It was on the corner of North and Green.

Stephanie: Where that stupid tree is?

Will: Yes， it completely blocks out any visibility.

Stephanie: ⑥Not to mention there are no traffic lights there.

Will: Exactly! And the owners of the cars where just yelling at each other and wouldn’t move their cars.

Stephanie: I hate it when they do that. They have no consideration for the other motorists[乘坐汽車的人]. If someone was injured I can understand. But they just need to exchange phone numbers and get their cars off the road.

Will: Yeah， the damage has already been done. Yelling at each other isn’t going to fix it.

Stephanie: ⑦Speaking of yelling…here comes Mr. Black. Looks like you’re in trouble.

Will: Yeah， I guess I should have called to tell you I was going to be late.

Stephanie: You got that right.

Will: Good morning， Mr. Black. I like your tie today， sir…

斯蒂芬妮：威爾！你去哪里了？你知道今天早上我們和客戶有個會議的。

威爾：哦，不！我來得太晚了吧？

斯蒂芬妮：是啊，他們剛剛走了。幸好我替你去了。但是如果布萊克先生想找你談一談的話，我也不會覺得奇怪了。你去哪兒了？

威爾：交通太糟糕了！北街上出了一樁交通事故，所以把通往南街的路全堵了。

斯蒂芬妮：嚴重嗎？有人受傷嗎？

威爾：不嚴重，只是個小事故。但是我坐的公車（被堵得）不能動了。

斯蒂芬妮：我明白了。我在周末也碰到過（這樣的事情）。北街被堵了以后，就絕對會一片混亂。

威爾：是的，然后我們去到事故地點。在北街和格林大街的轉角處。

斯蒂芬妮：在那棵煩人的樹那里？

威爾：是啊，它把視線都擋住了。

斯蒂芬妮：更不用說那兒還沒有交通指示燈。

威爾：就是！那些車主們只知道互相對罵，而不把車開走。

斯蒂芬妮：我討厭他們那樣。他們一點也不體諒其他乘車的人。如果有人受傷了我還可以理解，但是他們只要交換一下電話號碼，然后把他們車從路上移走就好了嘛。

威爾：是啊，事故已經發生了。互相大聲吼又不能解決問題。

斯蒂芬妮：說到吼……布萊克先生來了。看來你有麻煩了。

威爾：嗯，我想我應該一早打電話告訴你我會遲到的。

斯蒂芬妮：那樣做就對了。

威爾：早上好，布萊克先生。我很喜歡你今天的這條領帶，先生……

Smart Sentences

① Luckily I covered for you. 幸好我替你去了。

cover for sb.: do sb.’s work when sb. is not there（在某人不在時，為其臨時填補空缺）。例如：

We didn’t have enough teachers to cover for those who

were sick.

我們沒有足夠的人手代替那些請病假的老師。

② Mr. Black wants a word with you. 布萊克先生想找你談一談。

a word with sb.: a short discussion or conversation with sb.（與某人簡短的交談），詞組前可用want或have。例如：

When you are done fixing the PC， I’ll have a word with you.

等你修完電腦，我想和你談談。

③ Traffic was a killer! 交通太糟糕了！

a killer: sth. is extremely bad or extremely good（某事非常壞，或非常好）。例如：

The sand storm every spring is a killer.

每年春天的沙塵暴都非常要命。

④ No， just a little fender-bender. 不嚴重，只是個小事故。

fender-bender: a traffic accident that only involves a fender， or a very minor traffic accident（損壞范圍只限于檔泥板的交通事故，或交通小事故）。例如：

Insurance fraud could turn a fender-bender into a big

dollar case.

保險詐騙可以把交通小事故變成高價案子。

⑤ When North Street is down， it’s absolute chaos. 北街被堵了以后，就絕對會一片混亂。

sth. is down: sth. is not working properly（某物不能正常運作），多用于機器或復雜的系統。例如：

Whenever the intranet is down， the whole office is in

a mess.

只要局域網一出故障，整個辦公室就都亂套了。

⑥ Not to mention there are no traffic lights there. 更不用說那兒還沒交通指示燈。

not to mention: expression used when you want to add extra information to emphasize your point（用于引入新的內容來說明你的觀點，意為“更不用說”）。例如：

The newly-improved menu of the new cell phone model， not to mention its recording capability， attracted a lot of teenagers.

這款新手機改良后的菜單就吸引了大批的青少年，更不用說它還具有錄音功能。

⑦ Speaking of yelling… 說到吼……

speaking of: expression used to introduce a new topic just mentioned（用以引入剛剛提及的新話題）。例如：

I was assigned to work on the presentation for next week’s meeting. Speaking of the presentation， I need your help on a couple of figures.

我接到了為下周會議準備演示的任務。說起這個演示，有幾個數據我得請你幫忙。